A modest proposal by MP Nadine Dorries to offer independent advice to women seeking an abortion has led to angry protests, death threats – and the stifling of a once-in-a-generation debate. How did it come to this? A modest proposal. That was how Nadine Dorries, the Tory MP for Mid-Bedfordshire, saw her suggestion for independent abortion counselling. Why could a woman considering a termination get advice only from the same organisation that would carry out the procedure?

Queensland charities are warning they may go broke or be forced to reduce services because of back pay to staff worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Federal regulations require 316 charities to pay staff 18 months of salary rises ranging from 18 to 38 per cent. The organisations - including charities involved in activities ranging from domestic violence shelters to housing support groups across the state - are expected to start the retrospective payments from October 1.

The young people may not listen but every school and institution dealing with them advises careful consideration of what information they post online. Yet, log on and do even basic research seeking information about schools or education and you can be startled by the reams of collateral personal information readily available. A few quick searches and you can find endless details about students - which school they go to, what their parents do, their favourite food, what they liked best about camp, their favourite book, individual scores on general knowledge tests and when and where they play sport.

Victorian IVF experts want a national egg donation bank to be urgently established to help prevent infertile couples languishing for years on waiting lists and spending up to $100,000 to find a donor overseas.

Motorists are being caught drug driving at twice the rate as drink driving, alarming new figures show. Police, however, say drug drivers are at less risk of being caught because only 7 per cent of all tests are for drug use - despite posing the same risk as drunk drivers to the safety and lives of other road users. "People on amphetamine-based substances are great risk takers," SA Police Traffic Operations Unit boss Inspector Andrew Thiele said.

South Australian drug users are increasingly buying illegal drugs from overseas on internet sites such as Facebook and Silk Road. Police, Customs and the Australian National Council on Drugs have confirmed a growing number of websites offering illegal drugs to users around the world at the click of a computer mouse. SA Drug Investigation Branch Detective Inspector Derryn Phillips said police across Australia were working with Federal Police and Customs to target websites trafficking illicit drugs and those using the modern technology service.

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon says Australia can lead by example on human rights issues. Mr Ban met Prime Minister Julia Gillard at Parliament House on Saturday after earlier meeting Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd to discuss the unfolding situation in Libya and the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. The secretary-general praised Australia as one of the strongest supporters of the United Nations.

Brigadier Jim Wallace, Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby, looks like he is a winner in the battle over same sex marriage. Australia’s great secular prophet of politics (and we mean it nicely) Paul Kelly, Editor-at-Large of The Australian says “same sex marriage…is unlikely to prevail in the current parliament”.

To judge from some of the commentary, the most significant decision to be taken by the ALP's National Conference this year is whether or not to legalise gay marriage. It's not, and is in fact a secondary public policy issue for the Gillard government despite its understandable significance for those directly affected by the present state of the law.

Shahbaz Bhatti, 42, the first-ever Christian to serve in the Pakistan cabinet, who had vigorously campaigned for minority religious rights in Pakistan, which is 95 percent Muslim, was killed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. This news was told to Pakistan’s Senate Standing Committee (Interior) on August 24, 2011, by Islamabad’s most senior police officer, IGP Bani Amin Khan, according to The Express Tribune. They have backed away from previous claim that a ’family dispute’ was behind it

A Christian organisation has been ditched by a national charity for offering to pray for people with debt problems. Christians Against Poverty (CAP) has been forced to leave AdviceUK, an umbrella group representing the interests of thousands of advice workers, after it was judged that praying was ‘incompatible’ with membership.

The Federal Government will be criticised today for making budget cuts to mental health funding and accused of pandering to select prominent media performers in the field. The rebuke by the Psychologists Association will be delivered to a Senate inquiry into the adequacy of mental health services.

As Lord Mayor Clover Moore has won plenty of battles in her career, but can she out-manoeuvre God?The state's Land and Environment Court will decide that, with the Hillsong Church today beginning action for approval of its $1 million warehouse conversion in Alexandria.